Eve of Eden in a Landfill: Exodus of Genesis

First there was you Then you became two and the second was me You set me free in your Eden— Almost free. Free to lounge around On your Astroturf laden ground Under your tanning booth roof And 50 watt stars; Free to bask for days In your cancerous rays And snap, not ask, do no task, For the head of a baby seal Brought atop a silver caviar platter With a side of veal; Free to, from 100’s of trees Grown by your own hand Sown by some watering can rain And shone on by a hydroponic sun Sample 100’s of fruits Excluding apples.

For that fruit forbidden I was given a fruit of my groin Made for me, from me, From not just sweat and blood But flesh and bone: A rib taken to break down my cage So I wouldn’t be alone. From me you made her And as I became two, we became three Eve was the third; You said three’s company But we were your herd. She was the Eve of the rest of my life Given by you to be my wife, But since she didn’t give herself to me And I didn’t take her freely, She was no more than a promise Of sorrowful tomorrows Every false night When you turned down the lights And threw us together In the high hopes we’d make a blue sky She said we should wait another day Before I had my way.

She, like me, was free of sin, virgin But full of temptation’s elation So the snake that spewed poison from its throat Was naught but a scapegoat: She was already bit, and I insane We already had venom running in our veins Before she spied the apple of her eye. When she reached her farthest and the apple fell She uncovered gravity’s spell: That what goes up must come down And thereby engendered all man’s future frowns. When she came to me and confessed I ran to see that the apple Had not fallen far from the tree And said, “Forgive me, Father, For I am blessed.” It was bitten as a voice from the skies was bidden: “How do you like them apples? Are they worth mankind’s damnation?” I replied, “I laid the foundation for our salvation. You cannot fix what is not broken.” But even as my words were spoken We were dumped in a landfill Overflowing with burnt out discarded stars Piled on stacks of dirty silver dishes And filled with the skeletons Of our entrées in Eden.

As you deserted us, We three became two, and us two joined as one Under a harsh foreign sun As the tree of wisdom taught us To know one another fully. She was finally my present And our severed string was tied As Eve died and became Ever. As her emaciated belly grew We raced to make a golden avenue To a new kind of Eden, But the golden bricks were just yellow sticks Fool’s gold sold at a princely price And on our yellow brick road no song or dance No rhythmic spasms of limbs or jaws Could be followed to our Oz.

We named our twin kids Can’t and Unable For all that we did before they were birthed, So we bore our first two children Into a kill or be killed world of thirst Where the black tux and hearse Came on the backs of the crib and bib And took the bearded boys Before their birthday’s toys.

But the third time’s the charm, And we will let no harm come To our final son, So we lay bricks and concrete Race against the tick-tocking beat Of the cosmic clock you wound When we were outward bound. Sometimes at close of day When you turn down the lights We kneel and pray, Stick our blistered hands together To thank you and apologize Or curse and wish for you to die. Spare the sermonizing: We will not return to your Eden Though someday I may Make this landfill into one For my next and final son And all his sons and brothers Of which you will forever be the mother.

On bad days we pray: How do you like chucking your kids in the land of Nod? Making a masterpiece that’s flawed? Teaching all we know and you do not? Being an atheist’s god? On good days we pray: Exodus always follows Genesis But someday Revelations will come To all of us. I do not know which prayer to say yesterday, today, or tomorrow.

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